Tianshan Mountains
Deep in the arid continental interior, a miracle of spruce forests clings to mountain slopes thousands of kilometers from any ocean — a high-altitude green reservoir suspended in the desert.
Calm clear water reflects green slopes and spruce forest, with snow mountains far off and a spruce branch hung with cones at the right.
Vista4
- Mount Tomur Schrenk Spruce Virgin Forest
Beneath Tomur, the highest summit of the Tianshan, vast pure stands of Schrenk spruce act as a green alpine reservoir deep in arid Central Asia.
- Tianshan Tianchi Moraine Lake
Halfway up Bogda Peak lies this ancient glacier-dammed lake, ringed by spruce and mirroring snow peaks, a fabled Jade Pool of the immortals.
- Nalati Sky Meadow Alpine Pasture
Often listed among the world's great alpine valley grasslands, Nalati has seen Kazakh herders follow water and grass across its pastures for a thousand years.
- Xinyuan Tianshan Wild Fruit Forest
Ancient relict wild apples and apricots fill this primeval forest, a gene bank holding the wild ancestors of the world's cultivated apple.
Han1
- Xijun and Jieyou Marry into Wusun105–101 BCE
From 105 to 101 BCE, Princesses Xijun and Jieyou successively married into Wusun, forming a Han–Wusun marriage alliance.
Qing1
- Mingliang Names Tianshan Tianchi1783 CE, Qing
In 1783, Urumqi governor Mingliang recorded the name Tianchi in his inscription on the mountain's water-channel works.
Modern Era2
- Landscapes Join the World Heritage List
Huangshan was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1990, and by 2017 Mount Wutai, Longhushan, Xinjiang Tianshan, Guilin, Shennongjia, Hoh Xil and other Chinese mountain and landscape sites had followed.
- Xinjiang Tianshan Inscribed as World Heritage2013 CE
In 2013, the four-component Xinjiang Tianshan property—Tomur, Kalajun-Kuerdening, Bayinbuluke, and Bogda—was inscribed on the World Heritage List.